After turning Phasmophobia into one of the most successful indie games of the past decade, Kinetic Games is formally expanding its ambitions beyond development. The UK-based studio has announced the launch of Kinetic Publishing, a new label aimed at supporting small independent teams with hands-on publishing, marketing, and business guidance.
The move follows Phasmophobia’s extraordinary growth since its 2020 Early Access debut. The cooperative horror game has surpassed 25 million copies sold, while building a massive live community that saw 16 million Steam page visits, 150,000 new Discord members, and more than 700,000 new community followers in 2025 alone, according to the company.
Other indie studios have taken similar paths following the success of a game, like Among Us developer InnerSloth, when they launched OuterSloth.
Kinetic Games began as a solo project led by founder and chief executive officer Daniel Knight before growing into a studio of more than 30 developers. Knight said publishing has been part of the company’s long-term vision since its earliest days.
“It was always the goal,” Knight said in a video interview with GamesBeat. “As soon as I started hiring people, it was one of the first things I always told people was, ‘Eventually we want to get into publishing.’”
That perspective shapes how Kinetic Publishing plans to operate. Rather than acting as a traditional top-down publisher, the label is designed to provide practical and tactical support in areas Knight said he struggled with early on.
“I think it was more the business advice that was probably the main thing I was missing,” Knight said. “Especially around hiring people…I absolutely should have done that earlier.”
According to the company, Kinetic Publishing will offer financial backing, legal support, marketing services, and broader development guidance, tailored to each project’s needs. The label will also keep its slate intentionally small, so teams receive direct, meaningful attention.
Targeting small teams close to release
Kinetic Publishing is focused on solo developers and small indie teams, particularly those already well into production.
“We’re looking for innovative, kind of creative games on small indie teams,” Asim Tanvir, director of marketing and partnerships at Kinetic Games, said in the interview. “Whether that be solo teams or teams of two, three, four, five people.”
Timing is a key factor. The publisher is primarily looking at projects that are approaching the final stretch of development.
“We’re looking for [games] roughly 12 to 18 months from release,” Tanvir said. “Where we can kind of help them on that path and get out there and kind of make their games as best of a hit as possible.”
Knight framed the initiative as a way to help promising games cross the finish line. Since this is an initiative born from personal struggles and experience, he recognizes the shared experience he has with a lot of other budding indie game designers. He has the opportunity to provide guidance and insight from a place of actionable and recent expertise.
“We’re really looking at the games that are looking to just take the final step,” he said. “That final support just to get over the line.”
Genre-agnostic interest
While Kinetic Games is best known for horror given the massive success of their flagship game, the new publishing label is not genre-restricted. Many of the learnings the team has found over the years can apply to a wide variety of gameplay styles, genre focuses, and platforms. They don’t want to become too restrictive.
“Horror will not be the sole focus,” Tanvir said. “There’s so much exciting innovation happening across the indie space… and we want to champion that wider space and not kind of box ourselves in.”
That flexibility extends to tone and style as well, from experimental concepts to more traditional indie genres. A big part Phasmophobia’s success was subverting the typical isolation that is popular in the horror genre by creating a cooperative experience. The team is very interested in other games that combine mechanics and genres in innovative ways.
“For us, it just needs to be the right team, kind of right project,” Tanvir added. “The genre doesn’t really, really matter too much to us.”
Still, Knight acknowledged that Kinetic’s experience may be particularly valuable for certain projects.
“For multiplayer games in particular, I think we definitely have the expertise there,” he said. “Especially smaller co-op games.”
Kinetic Publishing will operate globally, accepting submissions from developers worldwide, even though they’re based in the U.K.
Internally, the label will be led by five senior members of Kinetic Games’ leadership team, including Knight and Tanvir, each maintaining visibility across their projects and disciplines. Tanvir brings more than 15 years of experience across marketing, community, and partnerships, with prior roles spanning major publishers including 2K, Konami, and Zynga.
Importantly, the studio emphasized that the publishing initiative will not distract from Phasmophobia’s ongoing development. The core team remains fully focused on the game’s roadmap, including its long-awaited 1.0 launch, with additional updates planned throughout 2026.
“Absolutely not,” Tanvir said. “This is something completely separate.”
What developers should expect
Developers interested in working with Kinetic Publishing will be able to submit projects directly through the studio’s website. Tanvir said clarity of vision is key. The website is very clear about the requirements needed for any pitch submission.
While Kinetic has not yet announced its first signed titles, the company plans to begin actively reviewing submissions following the label’s official rollout.
“We want to join the ranks of supportive indie publishers who champion and encourage creativity,” Tanvir said. “We hope the guidance and support that we provide to indie teams will help in ensuring they succeed in what they do best.”